Alexandria Venture Investments, a subsidiary of life sciences real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, contributed to a $70m series C round for US-based gene editing technology producer Cibus on Tuesday.
The round was led by financial services group Fidelity Management and Research, with participation from hedge fund Cormorant Asset Management.
Founded in 2008, Cibus has developed a gene editing platform that causes mutations in plants and other organisms without introducing foreign materials, meaning the resulting produce can be labelled as non-genetically modified.
Cibus released a herbicide-tolerant canola crop system, SU Canola, in the US and Canada in 2016, and has flax, rice and potato crops in its pipeline. The series C funding will go towards the commercialisation of SU Canola and accelerated pipeline development.
The company had previously raised a total of approximately $119m in equity and debt financing, according to regulatory filings.
Peter Beetham, chief executive of Cibus, said: “Closing the series C round of funding adds to what has been a transformational period and one of the most exciting times in our history.
“Over the last year, Cibus has reached a number of important milestones with our core technologies, regulatory and commercialisation execution.
“This funding is critically important for us to meet our aggressive trait development and commercialisation plans. We are thankful to our investing partners, both new and returning, for their support of our vision.”